Last weekend in Ventspils (Latvia) was held European Championship among juniors till 18 years old. Athlets of weight classes 53 and 58 kg used kettlebells 16 kilograms, athletes of other weight classes used ketllebells 24 kilograms. Girls competed in snatch with 16 kg kettlebells.

Were two days of competition. First day – biathlon competitions and snatch (for girls) competitions. Second day – long cycle competitions and relay in jerk.

In European championship were participants from 5 countries: Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania.

The Russian team won totally.

In same time there was held traditional international tournament “Ventspils Atlants”. It were competitions in biathlon and in power juggling. Participants used kettlebells 16, 24 and 32 kg. There were athletes from 9 countries.

Protocols of competitions will be able on our site in a week (in protocol section).

The first ever kettlebell sports competition in Ireland was held in Kilkenny city on the 24th July. This was hosted by Kilkenny kettlebell club, run by head coaches Mark Stapleton and Eddie Sheehan. The event was the traditional biathlon jerk and snatch, and to end of the day a strongman(32kg-36kg-40kg-44kg-48kg-56kg), strongwoman(20kg-24kg) this event was more for the public to try promote the sport and for everyone to have some fun at the end of a long day.

Ireland is still very new to kettlebell sports and because of this the competition was set up to try accommodate beginner level lifters, men used weights from 12kg-28kg and women from 8kg-16kg.

Competing was new for most athletes, the only ones who had competed before where athletes from Kilkenny kettlebell club and hells kettlebells, so we did our best to explain the rules to all athletes and we tried to make the judging fair.

There were 44 athletes on the day, and many spectators. People came from all over Ireland and we had a group travel over from walse, UK. (Hells kettlebells).

The quality of lifting varied but most athletes completed the full 10min jerks and snatches. Many big numbers where put up but it should be remembered that most males where using 16-20kg’s and so still more work needs to be done in Ireland to raise the level of Giverk sport. Mark Stapleton and Eddie Sheehan where the only athletes to use the 28kg and as head coaches of Kilkenny kettlebell club, have tried to set a standard from which other clubs and coaches can work towards. Mark and Eddie will be competing in Berlin in September, Wales in October and then in Italy in November with 32kg’s.

The sport side of kettlebells is sure to grow rapidly now, every gym in Ireland has sets of kettlebells , but most people only do kettlebell workouts and many have never even heard of the sport, Ireland up until now has only had a representative not an athlete attending some events held by the (IKUL) but nobody who competes and nobody who has actually trained up athletes correctly for GS. And nobody has promoted kettlebell sports in Ireland. This is no more, Ireland can be proud to say that on the 24th July the best of Ireland lifters got together and this is the start of kettlebell sports in our country.

Due to the lack of qualified coaches in Ireland, it may be sometime still before we see many Irish athletes on the international scene. But for now Eddie Sheehan and Mark Stapleton will be setting up a team to start competing at international events. We may not hit the big numbers yet and at the moment Mark and Eddie are the only athletes that can compete with the heavier weights (28kg and 32kg), But due to the great coaching abilities of their coach Gregor Sobocan from Slovenian kettlebell club, Mark and Eddie have progressed quickly and so have their athletes, which could be seen at the competition with over half the competitors coming from Kilkenny kettlebell club which is the biggest kettlebell sports club in Ireland.

We hope that the kettlebell community supports us and our athletes, we have a huge hunger for the sport, and we have the desire and the heart.

If anyone would like more information on the Irish kettlebell team please contact us via website www.kilkennykettlebellclub.com

In Siauliai city (Lithuania) 14-15 May, were held IUKL European Championship and Junior European Championship. May 16 the kettlebell lifting was presented in the International Sport Games "SAULES MIESTAS".

On the first day were competitions in biathlon (jerk and snatch), the second day - a long cycle competition.

Russian team won the team competition. Congratulations to all champions and winners!

The great result showed Russian athlete in w.c. 63 kg Jonny Benidze. He did jerk 130 reps and snatch 204 reps! With 32 kg kettlebells, of course.

May 16 at the Conference of European Sports Committee was officially announced about including kettlebell sport in the official competitive program of the European Sports Games which will be held in Siauliai in 2011, as well as in V World Games TAFISA "Sport For All", 2012.

In Urssu city (Russia, Tatarstan) on May 1-2 was held international competition among youths (1992-1994 years of birth). In this competition were participated more then 100 boys and girls from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Uzbekistan. There were 7 weight categories for boys and 3 - for girls.

First day was only jerk competition (for boys), on second day - snatch comp (boys and girls). Boys used 24 kg kettlebells, girls used 16 kg.

Ukrainian team won the team competition among boys, Belarusian team won the team competition among girls.

On Saturday 27th March Australia saw its biggest kettlebell sport meet to date: a whopping 7 competitors! Now in many other countries this sounds very, very small, but in Australia, where kettlebell sport has only really been accessible to people for about a eighteen months this was BIG.The competition was held at Kettlebell Athletica in Melbourne. So big was the lure of the event that a couple of people even came from interstate to attend. One of the biggest problems with kettlebell sport in Australia is that their population is very spread out over a very large land mass, so it's very difficult to get everyone together for a meet.

Even though they don't takes their kettlebell competitions too seriously at this stage (because they're such newbies) and the aim of the game is fun and to hopefully get a PB, the competitors (including myself) were pretty nervous beforehand and anxious to get started.

Australian kettlebell lifters are trying to increase the standard of lifing in Australia by having formal judging, and this was the first competition where they tried this out and even handed out a few no counts for illegal reps. So with two platforms and two judges the comp was ready to roll.

Every competitor, without exception, gave it their all and more hit a PB on the platform. The spectators, most of whom had never seen a live kettlebell sport competition, were very quiet during competitors' sets but gave hearty applause after. Any of them didn't found it boring - ten minutes goes much faster when you're watching!

There were also some strongman demonstrations, some juggling and a kettlebell relay race to finish off the day.

They will continue to strive to improve the quality of kettlebell lifting in Australia and attract more competitors to their meets.

Every year, thousands of athletes strongman, representatives of the combat sports, and fitness enthusiasts from around the world come to Columbus (Ohio, USA). There is the festival of a legend in bodybuilding Arnold Schwarzenegger – “Arnold Sports Festival”.

American Kettlebell club takes part in this festival since 2006.

At the festival was first held in the discipline of competition Kettlebell StrongMan and StrongWoman Sport!

At the 2010 Arnold Fitness Expo, AKC Head Coach Valery Fedorenko performs 60 Reps. Jerk with the 60kg Kettlebell setting a new World Record!

International kettlebell lifting is in full swing of various events. There are constantly a lot of topics for discussion on the forums. For more and more countries are engaged in kettlebell lifting. Sportsmen results increase all over the world. Today kettlebell lifting international news portal starts working. Large amount of news, reviews, reports, interviews will be published here. Let's develop international kettlebell lifting sport together!

If you have any interesting news, send us, we'll publish it for sure. Here we'll be writing events happened in international kettlebell lifting, about sportsmen and coaches, about national teams and clubs, as well publish photos and videos.